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A kind of smart calcium alginate fiber having pH indicating properties was proposed to monitor wound healing. The smart calcium alginate fiber was prepared by dyeing the hydroxypropyl trimethyl ammonium chloride chitosan (HACC) modified calcium alginate fiber with alizarin dye and anthocyanin dye, respectively. It was worth noting that modification of calcium alginate fibers with HACC enhanced the dyeing and antibacterial properties, simultaneously. When the concentration of HACC was 10 g/L, the modified calcium alginate fiber had the best dyeing performance. At the same time, the dyeing process had no significant influence on the mechanical properties of the fibers with the strength loss only around 0.2 cN/dtex. The smart calcium alginate fibers exhibited a rapid and significant color change and reversible color response at pH 2–11. Moreover, the color change could be easily observed by naked eye. Therefore, the prepared calcium alginate fibers could be a good candidate for intelligent wound dressings for visual monitoring of wound healing.

The electrospinning of poly(L-lactic acid)/poly(D-lactic acid) (PLLA/PDLA) microfiber membranes were carried out with dichloromethane (DCM), DCM/ethanol, DCM/acetone, DCM/hexane as the spinning solvent. Scanning electron microscope observation showed that the electrospun fiber obtained using DCM/ethanol (L/D-DE) mixed solvent was homogeneous without visible bead, which was better than any others. Moreover, plenty of pores could be found on the surface of the fibers obtained using the mixed solvents. The porous structure of fibers was significantly influenced by the ethanol (non-solvent) content. When the DCM/ethanol was 50:10 (v/v), the fibers were uniform and had isolated pores. XRD and DSC results indicated that the exclusive stereocomplex poly(lactide acid) (sc-PLA) crystallites without any homocrystallites poly(lactide acid) (hc-PLA) did form in all types of fibers. The crystallinity of sc-PLA in the L/D-DE fiber was higher than other samples due to the slowest evaporation rate. TGA test further indicated that the thermal stabilities of PLLA/PDLA electrospun fibers were slightly better than the PLLA. Furthermore, L/D-DE had the excellent mechanical properties and underwent the course of ductile fracture. Possible mechanisms accounting for the morphologies and tensile properties were also proposed in this study.

In the present study, ultrasound-assisted extraction was employed to extract the general flavone from celery leaves using response surface methodology and BP neural network model with a genetic algorithm (GA). The effects of temperature, time, solid-liquid ratio, and ethanol concentration on the extraction results were assessed by Box-Behnken design. Further optimization of the process was performed by GA-BP. Our results showed that the optimal conditions were an ethanol concentration of 70.31%, a temperature of 67.2 °C and an extraction time of 26.6 min. In addition, significant antioxidant activity and in vitro bacteriostasis were observed. We found that the total flavonoids of the celery leaves exerted a strong inhibitory effect on Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus subtilis. Additionally, considerable DPPH· and ·OH scavenging effects were exerted by flavonoids. Therefore, flavonoids from celery leaves can be considered natural antioxidants and bacterial inhibitors.

Background Accumulating evidence demonstrates that tRFs (tRNA-derived small RNA fragments) and tiRNAs (tRNA-derived stress-induced RNA), an emerging category of regulatory RNA molecules derived from transfer RNAs (tRNAs), are dysregulated in in various human cancer types and play crucial roles. However, their roles and mechanisms in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs) are still unknown. Methods The expression of glycine tRNA-derived fragment (Gly-tRF) was measured by qRT-PCR. Flow cytometric analysis and sphere formation assays were used to determine the properties of LCSCs. Transwell assays and scratch wound assays were performed to detect HCC cell migration. Western blotting was conducted to evaluate the abundance change of Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related proteins. Dual luciferase reporter assays and signalling pathway analysis were performed to explore the underlying mechanism of Gly-tRF functions. Results Gly-tRF was highly expressed in HCC cell lines and tumour tissues. Gly-tRF mimic increased the LCSC subpopulation proportion and LCSC-like cell properties. Gly-tRF mimic promoted HCC cell migration and EMT. Loss of Gly-tRF inhibited HCC cell migration and EMT. Mechanistically, Gly-tRF decreased the level of NDFIP2 mRNA by binding to the NDFIP2 mRNA 3′ UTR. Importantly, overexpression of NDFIP2 weakened the promotive effects of Gly-tRF on LCSC-like cell sphere formation and HCC cell migration. Signalling pathway analysis showed that Gly-tRF increased the abundance of phosphorylated AKT. Conclusions Gly-tRF enhances LCSC-like cell properties and promotes EMT by targeting NDFIP2 and activating the AKT signalling pathway. Gly-tRF plays tumor-promoting role in HCC and may lead to a potential therapeutic target for HCC.

Background: The existence of liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs) and the occurrence of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) are generally considered to be the primary causes for migration and metastasis of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Accumulating evidences demonstrate that tRFs and tiRNAs, are an emerging category of regulatory RNA molecules derived from transfer RNA (tRNA), are dysregulated in in various human cancer types and play crucial roles. However, their impact on tumorigenesis is still in the exploratory stage, their roles and mechanisms in HCC and LCSCs are still unknown.Methods: Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to detect the expression of glycine tRNA-derived fragments (Gly-tRF) in HCC cell lines and tumor tissues. Inhibitor and mimic were performed to weaken and enhance the function of Gly-tRF. Flow cytometry and sphere formation assay to detect the representative surface markers (CD133, CD13, EpCAM, CD44) proportion and stemness of LCSCs. Transwell assay and scratched wound assay were performed to detect HCC cells migration. Western blot was used to detect the expression of EMT-related proteins. Dual luciferase reporter assay and signaling pathway analysis were performed to explore the underlying mechanism of Gly-tRF functions.Results: Gly-tRF is highly expressed in HCC cell lines and tumor tissues, compared to L02 hepatocytes and adjacent normal tissues. Flow cytometry and sphere formation assay found that Gly-tRF mimic promotes LCSCs subpopulation proportion and LCSCs-like cells stemness. Next, functional experiments confirmed that Gly-tRF mimic promotes HCC cells migration and EMT. Consistently, Loss of Gly-tRF inhibits HCC cells migration and EMT. Mechanistically, Gly-tRF inhibits the level of NDFIP2 mRNA by binding to the NDFIP2 3′ UTR. Importantly, overexpression of NDFIP2 can weaken the effect of Gly-tRF in promoting LCSCs-like cells sphere formation and HCC cells migration, NDFIP2 is the direct target of Gly-tRF. Signaling pathway exploration found that Gly-tRF enhances the abundance of phosphorylated AKT.Conclusions: Gly-tRF promotes EMT of HCC cells and enhances LCSCs-like cells stemness via targeting NDFIP2 and activating AKT signaling pathway. The tRNA-derived fragments provide a new perspective of oncology research, and can be the direction of future oncology research.

In this paper, the influence of nanocellulose with different aspect ratio on the performance of PLLA/PDLA was explicit through a quantity of test results. Three different aspect ratio nanocelluloses were chemically extracted from waste colored cotton fibers. After acetylated and adding to PLLA/PDLA solution, PLLA/PDLA (LD) composites films were prepared by solution casting method and their properties were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized optical microscopy (POM), tensile testing, oxygen permeability and optical measurement. It was found that nanocellulose play a role as nucleating agent to promote crystallization and was also helpful to form the stereocomplexs crystallites. Wherein, the acetylated cellulose nanospheres (ACNS) had the most obvious effect on crystallinity enhancing. The best oxygen barrier performance of LD composites films was occurred after addition acetylated cellulose nanocrystals (ACNC). Fibrous acetylated cellulose nanofiber (ACNF) had the most influence on tensile property. Furthermore, addition of ACNS, ACNC and ACNF had hardly impact on transmittance and haze of films. It is of guiding significance for the preparation of PLA composite materials applied in different fields.

Curcumol is the major component extracted from root of Rhizoma Curcumae. Recent studies have shown that curcumol exerts therapeutic effects against multiple conditions, particularly cancers. However, the therapeutic role and mechanism of curcumol against cholangiocarcinoma cells are still unclear. In our current research, we tested the effect of curcumol in cholangiocarcinoma cells, and using two-dimensional electrophoresis, proteomics and bioinformatics, we identified cyclin-dependent kinase like 3 (CDKL3) as a potential target for curcumol. We have demonstrated that curcumol can evidently suppress growth and migration of cholangiocarcinoma cells. Furthermore, curcumol could significantly block the cell cycle progression of the cholangiocarcinoma cells. These effects could be largely attributed to the inhibition of CDKL3 by curcumol. Further studies have recapitulated the oncogenic role of CDKL3 in that knockdown of CDKL3 by lentiviral mediated transfection of shRNA against CDKL3 also led to a significant inhibition on cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and cell cycle progression. Given the high level of CDKL3 expression in human cholangiocarcinoma tissues and cell lines, we speculated that CDKL3 may constitute a potential biological target for curcumol in cholangiocarcinoma.